Respect (Spurs 104, Warrior 93)

The Battle of the Alamo lasted 13 days. The Spurs’ dominance of the Warriors in the land of the Alamo has now lasted 16 years. Someday soon, if the Spurs’ dominance continues, there will be Warriors on the roster who were not alive to see Golden State take a game on San Antonio’s home court. After all these years, Gregg Popovich’s complete and absolute control over the Warriors triggers only one emotion: respect.

The Warriors didn’t play a bad game Wednesday night against the Spurs. But it didn’t matter. When the game tightened up in the fourth quarter, it was once again time for Duncan and Ginobili to go to work and for the next wave of Spurs role players to fulfill their destiny in Popovich’s system. The Warriors were left to writhe around, then eventually succumb to the inevitable. The Spurs are the superior basketball team — shockingly only one win off Miami’s pace — and looked only mildly tested by the Warriors’ repeated surges.

Put simply, the Spurs played to their strengths and knocked the Warriors off theirs. Duncan was a hyper-efficient 11-17, scoring 25 in 31 minutes. Curry, Thompson and Lee, on the other hand, combined to go 15-45 (“lead” by Lee’s 4-17 night). The Warriors aren’t deep enough to survive below average nights from all three of their top players — particularly not against a team as good as the Spurs. The Warriors missed a fair number of shots they usually make, but the Spurs deserve a lot of credit for the smothering defense they laid across the Warriors’ offensive game. Almost every shot was a physical struggle — whether from 2 or 20 feet — and even the surest of shots — fast breaks off turnovers and Lee put-backs off misses — faced wave after wave of defensive challenges. The Spurs made a few mistakes along the way, but they never made things easy for the Warriors.

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The upside of the performance was how relentlessly the Warriors fought their way back into the game every time San Antonio seemed to deliver a knock-out blow. Effort wasn’t the issue for the Warriors. Talent wasn’t either — with Spurs fill-ins and reserves logging major minutes. The difference in the game ultimately was the ability to adapt. The Spurs had no problem weathering Tony Parker’s absence, the 3-11 night from their starting backcourt and 5-16 night from Ginobili. Popovich simply adapted — working the ball through his big men in the high post rather than through his guards on penetration. In contrast, the Warriors had no answers when their jump shooters failed to connect on shots and David Lee was neither making put backs nor getting to the line. Harrison Barnes, the one Warrior giving the team a new scoring look, went to the bench first early in the game and didn’t reappear for 15 minutes. The Warriors just kept doing the same thing, despite poor results, in the apparent hope that sometime, somehow the results would change in their favor.

Ultimately, there was little change, from earlier in the game or from ten years ago. The Spurs turn the Warriors into jump shooters and then challenge the jump shots to raise the degree of difficulty. The defensive system designed to squeeze the Warriors into those low-percentage looks also results in a lot of turnovers — both forced and unforced — because of the extra passes and dribbling required to find any daylight. The Warriors never managed to get rolling on offense, partially by luck and a large part by design.

In no particular order, some scattered individual thoughts:

Harrison Barnes — What does Barnes need to do to earn 30 minutes of playing time? He was aggressive all night, had the best offensive flashes of anyone on the team and played decent defense despite giving up a few early baskets. It seems like Barnes’ limited minutes are a product of wanting Jack/Curry/Thompson on the court more than a reflection of Barnes’ play. But even if the decision is based more on what others are doing (or are capable of), this seems like it would have been the perfect game to give Barnes a bit more room to show what he could do. He finished with an efficient offensive line, but it felt like it could have been a whole lot more.

Stephen Curry — To learn more about your own team, it’s helpful to see how others dissect it. Popovich’s defensive plan for Curry seemed less focused on preventing him from scoring and more concerned with not letting him be a playmaker. On repeated possession, Curry dribbled around looking for an open man but came up empty. With no one able to receive the ball, Curry often called his own number on these shots. While he connected on a fair number of them, the Warriors never got the offensive rhythm going. Curry wasn’t totally neutralized — but he didn’t need to be. Despite some late-game heroics, Curry alone couldn’t do enough to defeat a fully integrated Spurs team.

David Lee — It was an awful night for Lee on offense, but his defense looked better than on Monday. Lee tried his best to stick with his man, despite drifting into no-man’s land a few times (mostly when the Spurs stretched the floor with Bonner at 4). It was an encouraging sign of progress, if only for one game. At the offensive end, the Spurs played Lee all the way out to 20 feet, denying him easy looks on the jump shots that are a key component of his offensive game. Lee only took 3 shots outside of the paint, and missed them all. Inside, the Spurs’ size and physicality seemed to throw him off his game. The Spurs’ success could provide a blueprint for other teams on how to minimize Lee’s impact.

Andrew Bogut — We’re still seeing the lively Bogut at both ends. His lateral quickness is improving, as is his general conditioning. While he connected on a couple of early looks, his touch quickly deserted him. Despite his offensive struggles, he wasn’t disruptive taking 9 shots. Most of them came in the flow of the offense and were decent looks. Hopefully he’ll gradually dial in his offensive game given more touches. He’ll be at his most dangerous as a creator for others when teams have to respect his ability to create for himself.

Kent Bazemore — Last but not least, the Warriors’ walk-on made another strong pitch for more minutes. He was aggressive on defense, smart on offense and generally a shot of energy into the Warriors’ system. The question becomes who loses minutes for Bazemore to gain them? Curry certainly could use a few more bench minutes a night. Assuming Jack takes over the point, Bazemore would be a nice addition as the bench squad’s two-guard. Draymond Green is currently logging most of those minutes, but he’s a far better fit at small or power forward given his highly limited offensive game. Bazemore would allow the Warriors are equally impressive defender in the second unit backcourt but with fewer of the concerns regarding whether he can be a two-way player.

Another Spurs game in San Antonio, another loss. Until the Warriors play with greater discipline and adaptability, it’s more likely than not to continue this way in the series. Popovich has secured another 50-win season because he knows how to put pieces together to get the most potent combinations. That skill is part Xs and Os, part personality judgment and more than a dash of intimidation. As the Warriors look towards the playoffs, these Spurs games provide an ideal tune-up. The defense that the Spurs use to slow down the Warriors is likely to be at the top of any other opponents’ strategies. At least for one night, the Spurs looked as if they have the Warriors comfortably figured out.

Adam Lauridsen

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Excellent read on D Lee. The author makes a strong statistical case that Lee has been unjustly blamed for the Ws defensive issues. The truth is, the Ws are getting hurt on 3s because of the volume of 3s their opponents are firing, first in the league. Closing out on 3s is the perimeter man’s responsibility.

@Bry

Your comment really surprised me. For a guy who throws out a ton of stats to buttress his points dismissing the article because it doesn’t agree w you on Lee, and remarking “there is a lot (more) to meet the eye than just stats” seems very inconsistent. It would seem an article like that would at least make you rethink your views. I sometimes wonder what evidence it would take on this?

Please know that it is not a board consensus on Lee on D. A few have been very vocal and persistently critical, but others just as passionate and engaged are not with you on this.

IMHO, One shared by many on this board, Lee is the best Ws PF in 20 years (far more if we call Webber a center) and I appreciate that very much and DO think the defensive critiques are over the top and lose perspective.

Coltraning

@believe

Agreed. Ws have cake schedule now.

9 of 12 at home
8 of 12 non-playoff

Here’s one more wild card: NO ONE will want to play LA. If lakers stay in 8, don’t be shocked if SA and OKC lay down a little at Oracle, in order to avoid the Kobes.

You and I are 2 off. I see the Ws going 8-4 to finish 47-35, you see them going 6-6 to finish 45-39. I wouldn’t be shocked by 46-36 or 48-34, btw…

believewhat

col,

I think between 45 and 47 wins, the coach is the wildcard. I am little bit pessimistic in this, I think Houston will get #6 seed with dubs sliding to #7. We are familiar with players having bad games, but coaches have bad games too, I guess. Bad game for a coach would be making more bad calls than good calls or not counter with the on fly strategies when team is struggling. I have seen him coach brilliantly in some games, making right calls at right time but in the games dubs lose, his shortcomings and inexperience really show off.

believewhat

BTW, good to see Anthony Randolph get some action yesterday. He played 21 mins and had a game winning block.

believewhat

From the link Steve provided on Lee’s D, loved the footnote of the article. You can interprete anyway you want, but from article, David Lee’s interior D is bad but not affecting as badly to team as we think as teams take lesser interior shots. Also, the article didn’t mention another fact that Lee is more probably gets those rebounds off the missed shots at high%. So, in short he does compensate other ways, I don’t think anyone can argue that. The difference between bry and col’s view on Lee is bry wants more from Lee and Col is complacent

“Summing up

In sports we often want to focus on solving the problems we can see. Things like David Lee’s terrible defense stand out. It’s worth asking how much it matters though. As with all stats, if we don’t figure out the value of the problem, we risk over compensating on the solution. And while I enjoy a good poke at David Lee’s expense as much as the next guy, it seems to be the wrong place to look for the Warriors.”

believewhat

Denver, Contenders or pretenders, good comment by analyst here:

“Wade: Pretenders. The Nuggets have a case for winning the conference on paper, but never trust a team that can’t shoot. Only five teams shoot worse than Denver from 3-point range, and the Nuggets’ 35.0 percent accuracy from midrange is second-worst in the league. Feasting in the paint has worked so far, but some team will take that away in the playoffs.”

Just like the Heat in Cleveland, this is how streaks are made. Take the gifts and move on.

knick

@Bryshio
Did u just rank Bogut the 7th best center in the league? Did u just say Okafor is having a better season than Duncan and KG?
Per your own criteria Bogut shouldn’t count as the team have won more games without him. Your double standard is intriguing.
Ditto to Col comment re: ur Lee comment.

believewhat

yes dr., I saw those two mins and was unbelievable breakdown by philly.

coltraning

@ Dr and Believe

Yes, it was a dramatic collapse by Philly, but optics seem to come into play here. The Ws had at least as dramatic a collapse during just over 3 minutes if the 2nd quarter, being outscored 19-2 during that stretch. Because of the crunch time drama, clock ticking down, etc, we don’t see it that way, but it was at least as epic a collapse. (Or you could argue the Spurs played brilliant offense and defense in those 3 minutes, depending on your vantage point). In point of fact, we can often look to one stretch in a game that is determinative, and far more often than not it is NOT the tail end of the game, however much it may seem that way.

@ Believe

Funny. Nah, I am not complacent about Lee, rather I am grateful to have such a good Power Forward on our team after so many years of mediocre to bad ones and I think, as I have said many times, the hyperfocus on Lee’s defense by some of my friends on this board is excessive and out of balance. Once more with feeling: Don’t go into a Chinese restaurant looking for an Italian meal. I no more look for Lee to be a great defender than I do for Bogut to start draining 18 footers. We all double down to make our points, just as some are now waxing ecstatic over Bogut’s offense. It is news if Bogut has a great shooting night, it is news if Bogut has a bad defensive game. It is news if Lee has a bad shooting night, it is news if Lee has an excellent defensive game (if you subscribe to the notion that defensive rebounds, where Lee excels, are not part of good defense). It is news if Curry doesn’t score 20, it is news if Curry has 2 or less turnovers. Etc, etc…Lee is one of the top 5 offensive forces at the 4 and he was wretched against SA. If he has an average shooting night, the Ws win the game. THAT was the news…

nelliesbiggestfan

so bry believes the articles that back up his pre-conceived beliefs about Lee’s defense and it’s affect on the warriors but he dismisses the articles that do back up his preconceived beliefs. Not too surprising.

As for blaming lee for the w’s 3 pt defense you would have to believe that Lee is getting hammered down low in isolation a lot and perimeter players are doubling too much and leaving their man. But the numbers show that opposing teams aren’t taking a whole lot of interior shots against the w’s

A much more likely cause for open 3 pt. shooters is guards getting beat off the dribble causing other perimeter players to help which leaves open 3 pt. shooters. That of course isn’t lee’s fault at all.

sorry bry, looks like you lose, again.

nelliesbiggestfan

sorry my post’s third line should read “he dismisses the articles that don’t back up his preconceived beliefs.”

coltraning

@ Believe,

Looked at Houston’s remaining> I think you can definitely pencil in 5 losses for them plus probably one surprise loss. It could be as tight as a virgin’s you know what, but I still see the Ws getting 8 wins to go to 47 and the Rockets maxing out at 9 wins to get to 46. Lakers? 4 more losses.

My crystal ball, which I provide to you free of charge, as that is about what it is worth?

Ws 47-35
Rockets 46-36
Lakers 45-37

How about a healthy mild wager to make it interesting? A bottle or a case of your favorite beverage with $20 or less as the limit? We can do a gift certificate via bevmo…

coltraning

Re preconceived beliefs. We all tend to do that. Weird thing about human nature is when we are presented with evidence contrary to our beliefs, we tend to double down on them before we finally conceded the point. Case in point in politics on the left and on the right: Truthers and Birthers. It took me a while to get off adjusted plus minus as a stat. Someone much smarter with stats (my son) had to explain to me that the standard deviation was just way too high to draw any meaningful conclusions from them. In general, we often times mix up correlation and causation.

In philosophy there is a branch called phenomenology. In it, we all need to recognize that we have biases and do our best to bracket them out when we look at the phenomenon or evidence. Same would seem to apply to our preconceived notions about hoops, no?

Separate from that, sure would be great if the personalizing and attacking would stop on all sides, but I guess it is, after all, a sports blog, not a seminar

dr_john

Well, I hope the Warriors go 12-0, or 11-1, or. . .

At least they’re not in the 8th spot, as I do remember the Clips going 5-5 over their last 10 as the W’s went 9-1.

Just clinch, baby!

believewhat

col,

Do you think warriors can win against Lakers, that might be the difference to getting 47 wins Vs 45 wins. A healthy Lakers team that seemingly improving on defense(well, Howard seemed to be healthier) would be difficult to beat even with their chemistry issues.

I hope I am wrong and you are right and get that 6th seed and playoffs against Clips or Denver.

bryhsiao

Knick,
before you dish out the accusation, you should know Believewhat@99 posted his ranking of Cs and had Bogut at 7th.
And you still did not answer my 98@ where you used one game to determine Bogut’s worth at the same time Lee shot 4-17FG.

You even commented on splitter contained Bogut very well but instead you should also say Splitter contained Lee damn well too.
Splitter and Duncan are just that good.

Coltraning,

Somehow you got so riled up about Lee that I had no intention of blaming Lee was the culprit of our defense as a whole.

Again, I m saying it again to the whole board.
Lee is not the sole reason why our whole team defense deteriorated from Jan to March.

Everyone has a piece of the pie. Some bigger, some smaller.

I just indicated the author gave Lee a pass because our periemter D could not close on 3s but did not dig into why that happened.

We also had seen how our players sagged it in all the time.

I provided the reason IMO why that is:

“MJack had implemented a defensive scheme to pack inside and all our guards now have to work really hard to fight their habits to not sag it in and overhelp.
This was IMO to compensate our Lee and Landry front line against bigger C.”

Did I even mention or hint slightest it was all Lee’s fault our defense had been bad?

you must be kidding me if you think I had said that before.

The reason why I pointed out was not because Lee was beyond repair.
I pointed out that he has proven that he could do it and is capable of doing it as some games last season and many games this year.

And his improvement on D will patch up one of the biggest holes in this team and our guards need to stay in the perimeter like they had been recently.

Team scheme matters alot on how we defend. It also was designed to hide the weak spots until the opponents figure it out.

We played a lot of small front line and it’s understandable that we HAD to sag in to help.
And opponents had figured it out since Jan 2.

And everyone should stick with his man more now we have Bogut and Ezeli.

bryhsiao

Knick, btw
It was Believewhat@99 ranking Bogut at 7th and Okafor.
Not me.

believewhat

col,

I always thought getting rebounds is atleast 50% of defense and Lee is good at those. So, I am not totally down on Lee’s D like bry but on games we lose, two things usually stand out, Lee’s D and Jax’s coaching. Ofcourse, Klay’s shooting also has impact but you can’t expect good shooting on nightly basis, no matter who that player is.

If any of the following player has bad offensive night, they contribute in different ways to make up for bad shooting night:

* Lee’s passing and rebounding(inconsistent D)
* Bogut, just stepping up and be the disturbing force inside.
* Curry, setup teammates and play D

Other players don’t contribute if their scoring is off even though they are capable.

* Klay of late is playing D but if any player useless if shot not going in, it is Klay
* Jack is same like Klay, he seemed to key in his shot to contribute in other waysdistribution is also off.
* Barnes can board and play D but not consistent enough.

So, in all, our top 3 players, Curry, Lee and Bogut are versatile enough to contribute in many ways for dubs wins but warriors win and lose by contribution or non contribution of other players. Hope Barnes becomes consistent and joins those three by next year.

Dead horse alert, but the management of Barnes’s minutes is a mystery. He is really the only guy on the roster who can create his own shot attacking the rim. Against a smothering defense like the Spurs that seems like just what the Dr. ordered to me, but I digress.

I too want to see more minutes from Bazemore. Ostensibly, letting Jenkins go for basically nothing but tax relief for Lacob in return was feasible because Bazemore could be the 3rd PG, and had a bigger upside on defense. Let’s see it please, so when we do crawl into the playoffs we have a more dynamic bench player ready.

Losing to the Spurs is no shame, as one could argue they are the best team in the league (Miami plays in the East man, the leastern conference, it makes a big difference), but it is frustrating nonetheless. I’m hoping we can hold that 6th seed and vanquish CP3 and his merry band of over-rated impostors in the 1st round. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Coltraning

@ believe

That is a very reasonable take. I would add two elements in games we don’t win. One, two others besides Curry do not score well. Two, Curry has too many sloppy or unforced turnovers. You put that together with your elements, and I think you got it pretty good explanation for why we don’t win when we don’t.

@Bry

I’ve a simple question for you. Do you agree that D Lee is the Ws best PF in 20 years (or more if you call Webber a center)? If not, who is?
@yi

I am pretty happy, brother! The sun is shining, going to New York to play some music, and my favorite basketball team is the likely sixth seed in the west!

Coltraning

@slim

It would indeed be nice. Clips are only team in playoffs we have a winning record against. The Warriors: “we feast on bottom feeders”.

Slimman

Lol Coltraning, we feast on bottom feeders indeed, but e also seem to own the Clips. I’m thinking with a healthy Bogut the Denver match-up is a lot more favorable to us too; if you can keep Denver on he perimeter you win. The Spurs, OKC, or the Grizz will destroy us.

Steve

GSW: Bogut becoming effective paint protector

OAKLAND — It’s been a year and 10 days since the Warriors acquired Andrew Bogut. But it’s been little more than the past 10 days that the Bay Area has finally started to see the bona fide big man the Warriors believed they were getting when they made the deal.

Regarded as one of the best defensive centers in the league when healthy in Milwaukee, Bogut is starting to step up his prowess as a paint protector during the Warriors’ stretch drive. That development could change their “fear factor” to a prospective opponent once they get into the playoffs.

Bogut is quick to remind that the Warriors have to lock down that playoff spot first. Even though their position appears solid with 12 games to go — eight of those at home — there is still unfinished regular season business, starting with the Washington Wizards on Saturday night at Oracle Arena.

“We’re not there yet,” Bogut said. “We haven’t been there in a number of years and we can’t sit back and play like we’re in cruise control. We have a lot of work to do in these next 2-3 weeks.”

But there is little question Bogut’s extended presence in the middle — he’s played over 30 minutes in four of his last five games — is starting to have a profound impact on the team’s defensive results. The Warriors have held opponents under 100 points in four of the last six games, and all of those games have been victories.

NEW JERSEY – Last season’s San Antonio Spurs had the best record in the Western Conference at 50-16. This season’s Spurs have the best record in the Western Conference at 52-16. It’s basically the same roster with almost the same exact record.

But it’s not the same team, really. And this Spurs team is better suited to win a championship.

Earlier this month at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was asked about how open-minded Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is in regard to analytics. Buford noted how Popovich liked how the numbers often confirmed his basketball beliefs, like the importance of corner 3-pointers. And then Buford talked about how the Spurs dug into the numbers in the offseason to see how they can get better defensively.

“This summer, we looked at our defensive efficiency, which for years had been very high. And last year, we went in the 10-15 range. And I think we were valuing some things that weren’t nearly as important as the data showed us. We learned from the Celtics.

“While they were really high in defensive efficiency, they weren’t very high in defensive rebounding. And that was a big part of where our emphasis was, and it made us question is that really where we should be paying attention. And those were discussions that were then brought to Pop from our coaches and from our analytics team. And some great discussions came from that, that ended up having us reevaluate what was important to us.”

“I had no intention of blamng Lee was the culprit of our defense as a whole”

and

“did I even mention or hint slightest it was all lee’s fault our defense had been bad?”

Yes you did bry. after the win over the rockets you wrote

“If he (lee) plays average or above average defense, everyone can stay to their man more”

If bry is now changing his tune and NOT blaming lee for all of the warrior defensive problems, that is a good thing but denying that he was doing that before is not honest at all.

bryhsiao

Coltraning

Our past PFs, are

Tom Gugliotta( who then went to Wolves averaging 20+ ppg 8.7 rpg for 2 years)
Chris Gatling (who then went to Raptors&Mavs averaging 19.9ppg, 7.9 rpg)

These two did not do well with us but they did very well for other teams.

Billy Owens 15ppg 8rpg with us
Joe Smith ( his best two years with us 18.7PPG 8.5RPG)
Troy Murphy can average 15ppg 10.8rpg a year

Terry Cummings was a beast in his first 10 years in the league (22ppg, 9rpg) and then when he joined us, he was almost retiring.

Clarence Weatherspoon, Jason Caffey, were blah

Al Harrington, Corey Maggette, Chris Mills, they were NOT PFs.

Remember Danny Fortson 16.7 ppg 16.3 rpg in his first 6 games with us before his knees gave out?

AJamison were averaging 20ppg 7rpg for us and then became an allstar for Wizard where he averaged 21.4ppg 10.2rpg in that season.

And I hate Jamison’s game so much but he apparently could also score 21/10 in a year.
You would not think Jamison’s defense was good, do you?

Lee is a great offensive player and rebounder. And I would take him over many above. That only showed the misfortune that we had for a star 2 way PF (except we sent CWebber away).

it’s not like we have a choice here, dont we?
DLee is here for the long haul and the only way we get more 2 way plays out of him is that his gradually improving defense and the team surround him helping to compensate some.

bryhsiao

The troll

“If he (lee) plays average or above average defense, everyone can stay to their man more”

This is a FACT. Same thing with Landry.
That’s PART of the reason why we got burnt so much in the periemter which had been documented in many sites.
You on the other end, dont watch games and any media outlet, so you wont know.

That was MJack’s scheme the whole first 60 games. Deal with it.
We play pack-it-in style because we have small front line.

you should know best.

But hey, MJack learned to play more traditional lineup now. You need to bring it up to him why he is now so STUPID (per your comment) to play Bogut/Ezeli 40mins+.

Awaiting for your open letter to MJack.

believewhat

As expected, houston wins and 1/2 game behind dubs now.

admoney

This “bry says” — “the troll says” crap is way past old…

Go USA! Beat Costa Rica!
Go Clint Dempsey!

Dubcakes

Side track here… @122 Coltraning: Safe travels to New York. Just caught a glimpse of one of my favorite jazz musician on Youtube: Shirley Horn. I had seen her @ Yoshis SF years ago (I was fortunate to have seen her as it was one of her last performance before she passed). She sang “Here’s to Life” song —literally blew the audience away. IMHO, for those jazz lovers, check her out. She trumps many talented singers- Her musicanship stripped to its essence-full, rich, and complex. She can deliver the essence of life, a message so beautifully delivered.

so now bry writes that his criticsm of lee’s defense applies to all the warrior players. Of course bry doesn’t rip anyone’s defense like he rips lee’s, does he ?

And bry refuses to address a huge reason for the problem of opponents 3 pt shooting and that was curry’s slipping defense. Curry gets beat off the dribble, the defense collapses in the paint to help and the opposing PG kicks it to an open three point shooter. How often did that happen during the slump ?

But you’ll never hear about that from bry, he’ll keep his focus on Lee’s defense, whether he deserves it or not.

I will stop replying to the troll.
He is just a shameless poster who kept trying to attack bloggers to spew his crap. Always try to inject himself into the conversation.

I’ve done it before and I can do it again.

It’s just him having no pride in doing anything. Keep dragging my names and putting words into my mouth when I had no mentioning his name for months.

But you are absolutely right that I am not a lonely person like him and I will refrain from replying to him from now on.

bryhsiao

Now Wizard just beat Lakers.
And NO beat Memphis.
Utah took Spurs to overtime and lost.

Can we stop saying those are bottom feeders who have no business wining against playoff teams?

Now Wizard must be feeling pretty good 5W1L the last 6 games. (all sub 500 teams except Bucks and Lakers)

John Wall 16 assists 9-19FG 6-8FT, . Ariza 7-12 3s 9-15FG. Nene&Seraphin played very well.
Okafor did not even play with the flu.

Saturday is the game that will separate us from Lakers and keep Houston at bay.

Hopefully the whole team will follow Bogut’s comment from the practice interview to take care business with the sense of urgency.

high dribble dribble

since the Wizards have played with a healthy Wall and a healthy Nene, they are over 500 –with a number of wins over top teams – they also have a better record than the Ws over the last 40 games or so

Coltraning

@bry

So rather than drown me in a blizzard of stats about what players did after they left the Ws or in the 6 games before they got hurt, bro, yes or no: Lee best W PF of last 20 years? If no. Who?

And when did anyone say bottom feeders have no business beating playoff teams? I missed that straw man.

Coltraning

Good that both jazz and esp lakers lost at home. Ws best be VERY careful w Wizards since John Wall returned. 16 assists to 1 TO? Now THAT is one helluva night, Mr. Wall.

coltraning

@HDD

That is an astonishing stat. I had to double check it: You are right, sir. The Ws are 19-21 in their last 40 games, whereas the Wizards are 21-19! Damn…However you slice it, the Ws have been damned mediocre the past 40 games. 17-21 since their high water mark of 22-10 or 9-14 since their next high water mark of 30-17. Ws are living off their early cushion.

Steve

WarriorsWorld Podcast

“The WarriorsWorld podcast is back for another episode as Sheed and myself talk the Warriors road trip, their upcoming five-game homestand and we give our predictions.

In our second segment we discuss who we think are the dumbest players in the NBA, the lack of playing time for Harrison Barnes and talk Vivek Ranadive’s possible bid for the Sacramento Kings.

In our final segment we talk about what we hate about Oracle Arena and the potential matchups for the WarriorsWorld 3-on-3 tournament.”

col, let us hope Wall’s turnover rate for the season reverts to his mean – 5.6 per 48 minutes (Curry’s is 3.9).

bryhsiao

Coltraining

What the f got into you talking about strawman?
you really want a name?

Some here said with Bogut we hadn’t won against playoff teams much. But how did we lose to those bottom feeders before like Magic/Kings and Raptors?

I was just saying we cannot overlook those bottom feeder. Every game counts.

I did not disrespect you in my post. you need to get your tone clean up since that post was not even direct to you.

For your request, I will surely take Webber and you may be right DLee is the best PF outside Webber comparing to those not so great PFs we had.
So what’s your point?
that means we should not be able to criticize his defense?
That means we cannot compare him to other PFs around the league?
Surely we hadn’t had a PF getting paid 15M per.
I will surely get a PF who scores 12 ppg 12rpg with a great defense in a 8M contract too.

Yeah, let’s compare apple to orange.

dr_john

Boozer/Noah combo had way more success than Duncan/Splitter against the Bogut/Lee pairing. But both had success.

Chicago and Spurs run very different motion with their bigs — Chicago picks high weakside for cutters crossing the key, Spurs more toward low direct angle cuts. Or Boozer pops up from the baseline for the fading jumper. Spurs prefer pass out for second pass to open shooter.

The common problem for the Dubs was that they could not disturb those teams from getting their bigs to sweet spot shots. When they could not get to the rim, both Duncan and Noah had open mid-range spot ups.

I could fault Lee, he was usually worse for position on these motions. But really, it’s more team awareness. Sometimes it just takes a little chuck by a guard or forward to delay the timing — and that’s enough.

This is why I kind of like Bogut, standing there idly and some opp SF decides to take a stroll through the bottom of the key and WHOP a little wrist or forearm to delay his motion. I don’t want to see just Lee emulate this, I want every Warrior to adopt it as standard practice. Movement meets potholes.

Right now, at this point in the season, I think a bit more narrative and less stats when it comes to our team. Stats for other decisions. Just say what you think you see, or saw — if you watched the game, that is.